The Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the outline of the case of Mr. Pedro Nel Jiménez Obando, Mr. Leonardo Posada Pedraza, Mr. Octavio Vargas Cuéllar, Mr. Pedro Luis Valencia Giraldo, Mr. Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa and Mr. Manuel Cepeda Vargas of Colombia, as contained in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/170/13.c(ii)-R.1), and to the relevant resolution adopted at its 169th session (September 2001),

Recalling that the MPs concerned, members of the Unión Patriótica, were all assassinated between 1986 and 1994 and that only in the case of Senator Cepeda Vargas have the murderers, two army non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Mr. Justo Gil Zúñiga Labrador and Mr. Hernando Medina Camacho, been brought to justice; while they were sentenced to 43 years’ imprisonment at first and second instance, the former paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño, who had been indicted as the presumed instigator of the crime, was acquitted on both occasions,

Recalling also that Carlos Castaño, together with his brother Fidel, and Gustavo Adolfo Mesa, a member of the disbanded Medellín cartel currently in prison for another murder, are suspects in the case of Senator Jaramillo, and that the trial in this murder case started on 15 April 2001,

Taking account of excerpts provided on 5 December 2001 and 10 January 2002 by one of the sources of Carlos Castaño’s book “My Confession”, which was published in early December 2001 and in which he acknowledges having ordered and personally led the commando which assassinated Manuel Cepeda and even mocked the court’s decision to acquit him; noting also that the book has been forwarded to the Supreme Court before which the Cepeda murder case is currently pending as proof of Carlos Castaño’s guilt and that, according to one of the sources, in making this confession Carlos Castaño may be seeking the acquittal of the two former NCOs, stating that he was the one who ordered and carried out the crime,

Considering that no information has been provided by the authorities on progress made in the investigations into the death threats against Senator Cepeda’s son and daughter-in-law, the disappearance of the wife and the daughter of the main witness in the Cepeda case and the attempt, in December 1999, to kidnap the second daughter of the witness or on any progress in the other cases,

Recalling the proposal it made at its 169th session (September 2001) for an on-site mission in order to promote a satisfactory settlement, given the lack of progress in these cases; noting that the parliamentary authorities responded favourably to that proposal by making the necessary arrangements for the mission to go ahead, but that a sudden change in the political climate prevented it from taking place as scheduled, namely the breakdown of the peace negotiations on which the Government had embarked in early 1999 with the main armed opposition group, the FARC, following the kidnapping of Senator Eduardo Gechem,

Considering that the FARC subsequently kidnapped former Senator Ingrid Betancourt and a week later assassinated in cold blood Senator Martha Catalina Daniels, her driver and a friend,

Noting that since those attacks a new Congress was elected in early March 2002,

1. Thanks the former parliamentary authorities for their efforts with a view to receiving the mission; deeply regrets that, owing to the changed political situation, the Committee was compelled to decide that it was no longer appropriate for the mission to take place as scheduled;
2. Is alarmed at the recent wave of violence against MPs, which is all the more serious in that it prevents them from defending and promoting human rights and hence jeopardises the institution of Parliament itself;
3. Considers that, in the absence of any positive developments in the cases under examination, the grounds for the mission remain fully valid;
4. Believes, however, that the mission should only take place once the socio-political context allows it to fulfil its mandate of gathering the fullest possible information on the cases in question from the competent parliamentary, executive, administrative and judicial authorities, as well as from the families of victims, their lawyers and competent human rights organisations;
5. Would greatly appreciate meanwhile receiving from the authorities, in particular the new Congress, any information on progress in the cases in question;
6. Requests the Secretary General to communicate this resolution to the parliamentary authorities and to the sources;
7. Requests the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session (September 2002), in the light of such information as the on-site mission may gather.

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